Sunday, April 22, 2012

Welcome to the Sunday Surf, a tour of the best blogposts I've read throughout the week.

I'd like to preface this with a big Thanks a lot for nothing to Blogger. They switched me over to the new editor, which I'd tried out before but despise. Everything took four times longer, and it messed up my formatting, and, to top it off, it lost all my changes! Lovely.

Sam taught me a hack for getting back to the old editor (for now): Replace blogger.g in the URL with posts.g — booyah!

Anyway, that's why Sunday Surf is so late today. I just had to go to sleep instead of trying to reconstruct at 3 in the morning. I think that was the wise course.

Alrik demonstrates proper ice cream cone enjoyment.

Yesterday the boys took me out to eat and to buy (SECRET) items for my (SURPRISE) birthday party. I don't know what they are AT ALL, except for all the things Mikko blabbed to me.

Four-year-olds love having secrets but are not as down with the keeping of them.

So, yes, tomorrow is my birthday. And our big plans this weekend include continuing to use birthday coupons I've amassed. Same as every birthday. But I like it, for I am easy. Also, a cheap date.

At some point I will be AMBUSHED by the fantastic surprises I don't at all know about. And much merriment will be had by all.

I've already started teaching Alrik some birthday signs in preparation.

TV: a Tool or “The Devil” at Living Peacefully With Children — a middle ground to using television for the good it can bring a family.

Unlimited Screen Time? at The Path Less Taken — on letting go of limits and managing (and enjoying) the results.

Sam and I have had various talks about unplugging the TV, because Mikko lovesit, but here’s the thing: We really, really love it, too. For ourselves, I mean. We’ve been watching TV all our lives, and yet we‘re not unthinking zombies.

So for now, rather than enforcing limits, I’m concentrating on offering alternatives whenever I get that nudging sense that too much TV watching or other screen time is happening (for any of us). Usually an offer to go somewhere or do something fun is more appealing than a show — and if not, then we watch the show!

Really interesting take on how the princesses’ lives might turn out in the “happily ever after.” How do you relate the stories to your kids (especially daughters) and give a realistic view of human experience?

Find more giveaways at my Natural parenting giveaways linky! Add your own, and enter some good ones. Right now you can enter to win a $50 at Lunapads, a Lullaby Earth crib mattress, adorable stuffed animal hamper from Laslappie Crafts, Love Languages books for children, cloth wipes, and more!

Surf with us:

We love following along with fellow Sunday Surfers. If you have your own post of reading links to share, please link up your post on Hobo Mama or on Authentic Parenting. The linky will go live every Sunday, and you can link up any day that week. If Sunday doesn't work for you but you do a links list another day, feel free to play along. You only need to add your post to one of the sites, and the linky will automatically show up on both sites.

Thanks for the link! Great ideas for tv time, too; I like the balanced approach!! =) We have a "30 minute per day" rule for our kids; they can watch tv, play Club Penguin on the computer, or play Wii for 30 minutes per day. I was thinking about changing it up for summertime and making it a bit more free yet actually reduce the overall hours: I figured maybe we would say "2 hours total per week, use at your discretion," type of idea... They can play or watch for 2 hours straight the first day or spread it out over the week, but two hours max. We'll see if it works out, but I must say the distratction approach is appealing because it is more gentle and requires less haggling...

I am really looking forward to reading the posts about tv usage & kids. I've been considering the unlimited option because I think they might self regulate well and we'll have fewer arguments about it. My oldest often has meltdown when tv time is over, no matter how many gentle reminders he gets.

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Riding the rails with my husband, Crackerdog Sam, and our hobo kids, Mikko Lint Picker (born June 2007), Alrik Irontrousers (born May 2011), and Karsten (born October 2014). Trying every day to parent intentionally and with grace.